http://www.theequestrianphysio.ca/, https://www.theequestrianphysio.ca/tep-training-app-landing-page

The Equestrian Physio, Guelph, Guelph, ON (2025)

09/13/2025

“But shouldn’t I train in the gym in a way that looks like riding?”

I hear this ALL the time, and I get it. You want to be "sport-specific". You want the time and effort you’re putting into your training to directly improve your riding. That makes total sense.

But here’s the thing I need you to know: riding is primarily a SKILL. It's a highly SKILLED sport. One that demands precision, timing, awareness, coordination... but ALSO strength, power, aerobic capacity, and resilience to EXPRESS that skill.

And those are two different things.

Riding isn’t a pure athletic movement like sprinting or weightlifting (though those obviously have a skill component too, but you get what I mean). It’s a SKILL-DEPENDANT sport that’s built ON TOP of athletic capacity. You need both. But they don’t get trained in the same place.

The saddle is where you train the skill. And the GYM is where you build the CAPACITY.

You’re not going to become a better rider by doing squats that try to mimic a posting trot. You’re not training the skill of riding with your deadlifts or lunges, and that's not the point. You’re training the PHYSICALITY that allows you to ride well, to ride long, and to not fall apart doing it.

You’re training so your body isn’t the limiting factor.

And that’s why the gym doesn’t need to mimic the tack. That’s why it’s OK, or even ideal, if your training looks NOTHING like riding. You’re not trying to make things feel like riding. You’re trying to build a body that can handle the demands of a sport that already asks so damn much of you.

And if that shift in mindset is clicking into place for you, then I want you with me this fall.💪

Doors open September 15th for the last 2025 launch of TEP Training System; my app built for equestrians who are ready to train hard, ride soft, and build a body that can do both for decades to come:)

Drop a "READY" in the comments if you’re in, or want the details. I’ll DM you first❤️ LinkDM *006*

09/11/2025

Ever try one of those stretches that feels like it unlocks everything?

This is one of mine.

Some people call it a reverse Jefferson curl. I've also heard it called less polite names😂 I don’t really care what you call it, but I do quite like it for warming up before rides, squats or deadlifting.

It super handy to mobilize through tight hamstrings, open up the hips, and work into deeper ankle ranges. It’s a go-to for folks with some nagging sciatic tension. It builds some mobility through spinal flexion and some loading at end range too (depending on how heavy you go), and I really like how it encourages you to explore your body’s mobility (instead of just ticking a box with static stretches as most of us do...)

I love it because it’s kinda an exploration of how you're feeling across multiple joints from day to day. You’re feeling things out as you spend some time in it. You roll down slow, get deep into your hamstrings, sit your butt to the box, and actually spend some time there. Shift around. Notice what’s sticky. Let your breath and the weight help you settle in.

Then you flow, moving in and out of that deep squat to folded position, gently working those ranges that tend to get tight, locked up, or ignored.

Don't worry so much about doing it “right”, either. This one I tend to use more for just listening to your body and letting movement teach you something.

If you’re someone who tends to push through stiffness, or skips your mobility because you don’t know where to start, this can be a great place to begin.❤️

What do you think? Would this make it into your pre-ride or post-ride routine?
Or are you already using something similar in your training?

Let me know what you’d call this one, or how it feels in your body if you give it a try.⬇️

09/09/2025

One of the biggest misconceptions I see in the equestrian industry is thinking that, just because the manual labour involved in owning a horse or running a barn is extensive, you don't need additional training to perform.

And I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but this couldn't be further from the truth.

Yes, owning a barn or a horse is labour intensive, but on it's own, it's not enough. It comes down to a concept of LOAD vs. CAPACITY, and simply put, your body will only give what you ask of it.

So, if your only "training" consists of mucking stalls and hauling buckets, that's all your body is going to be capable of. Which leaves you running the red line of what your body wants to accommodate 90% of the time.

The other issue, which I haven't outlined as much here, is that barn chores are not strength training. For the most part they are low load, high volume, repetitive tasks, which can be fatiguing for sure, but aren't sufficient to actually stimulate strength gains for the majority of us.

We need additional RESISTANCE training on top of our barn chores and riding in order to increase the capacity of our tissues and generate strength gains. This also helps protect us from overload injuries both in riding and our day to day chores. It's not easy, so lets not pretend it is, but it IS necessary to be the athlete your horse deserves. And who ever said being an equestrian athlete was supposed to be easy?

09/07/2025

Let me know: has fear of doing it “wrong” ever held you back from strength training? I’d love to hear your experience.⬇️💬

We have this weird obsession with “perfect form”, perpetuated by a lot of what we see on social media, coaches, and trainers. So many riders get stuck thinking they’re going to get hurt if their technique isn’t flawless... soooo they end up doing nothing at all🤷‍♀️. The fear of doing it wrong becomes a bigger barrier than the training itself.

But research really doesn’t back that up. “Bad” form on it's own isn't a major cause of injury!

What DOES increase your risk? Doing too much, too soon, too fast. Pushing past what your body is actually prepared for (and usually having "bad" technique simply because you're past capacity). Whether that’s load, volume, or movement complexity, injuries tend to happen when we push past our body's tolerance faster than it can recover, not because your knees weren’t stacked perfectly over your toes.

Now don’t get me wrong, form still matters! But not in the way most people think. It's primarily a performance tool. Think of your body like a system of levers and pulleys, and like any physics problem, there's better and worse ways to arrange them. But less efficient DOESN'T necessarily mean "dangerous".

Most of us wouldn't hesitate to pick up a 1 lb dumbbell with a rounded back. But if you're picking up something near your max, you might want to pay more attention. Not because it’s dangerous, but because it’s a lot of load and you’ll want to move as efficiently as possible!

We don’t need to obsess over form from day one. We need people MOVING. Exploring. Getting strong in a variety of positions (like what we're exposed to in life!). Let form evolve with performance goals, instead of gatekeeping strength behind rigid technique rules.

If we treated learning to lift the way we treat learning to ride (where ugly beginnings are just part of the process), maybe more people would stick with it. Just my 2¢...

09/06/2025

When people talk about “sport-specific” training for riders, they often picture gym exercises that look like riding… sitting on an exercise ball, mimicking reins with bands, using unstable surfaces like wobble boards.

But that’s NOT what the gym is for.

Riding is a high-SKILL sport that REQUIRES a high level of physical capacity. It’s not just a pure athletic expression, like powerlifting or a 100m sprint. It’s primarily a skill-based performance, but without adequate physical capacity, we’re going to run into roadblocks trying to express that skill.

So in training, we separate those two things:

Skill is refined through riding. Timing, feel, balance, and decision-making.

Capacity on the other hand is built in the gym. Strength, power, mobility, control, and aerobic fitness.

You’re not going to magically improve your half-pass by picking up a dumbbell and not riding (though that’d be nice😂). But you CAN develop the physical capacity to express your riding skill with more CONTROL, more stamina, and fewer breakdowns under pressure.

That means fewer compensations, too.
More control and stability under fatigue, and a better chance of riding the way you know you can even when your horse throws you something unexpected.

So no… we don’t need our workouts to “mimic” riding. We need them to support it.

We’re not training the skill of riding in the gym. We’re training the engine BEHIND it.

If you’ve ever wondered what actually matters in off-horse training, this is your sign to stop chasing “rider-specific” gimmicks and start building real, functional capacity.

Curious what that could look like in a structured plan?
Drop a comment “WAITLIST” and I’ll send you info on how to get started this September inside the TEP Training app. Doors open on the 15th for the last enrollment of 2025!

Let’s train hard, ride soft, and build the body that can handle both for decades to come💪

09/04/2025

Why does a soft seat feel so out of reach sometimes?

Contrary to what most people think, it actually takes a hell of a lot of work for riders to just "sit there" when working in the saddle.

As the horse travels over the ground, the impact of their feet with the ground generate "ground reaction forces". These forces are translated through the saddle, and in order to maintain synchronicity with the horse's movement, the rider needs to absorb and disperse these forces with their own body.

As the horse travels over the ground, their back will pitch and roll, and different gaits have a different pattern of movement, with trot often being the most challenging one to accommodate as the horse is "jumping" from one diagonal pair to another, creating a lot of vertical displacement. The more animated the gait, the more the rider will have to work to accommodate the bigger movement.

The strength and skill to predict, absorb and disperse these forces is what is required to achieve that "soft" seat. This requires significant strength and mobility developed through off-horse training, and the skill to predict and sync movement, which is best developed with time in the saddle.

If you're struggling to achieve that elusive "soft seat", working with a physiotherapist or personal trainer to really hone in on your strength and mobility will be an essential component to help accelerate this skill development.

And if you're looking for a little help getting started, comment WAITLIST for a link to join TEP Training System! With discipline specific training programs, on-demand rehab and mobility workouts, and a library of educational content, it's everything you need to gets started developing YOUR BEST SEAT❤️

LinkDM *001*

09/03/2025

If you're new to the gym, ask a questions – if you're an experienced lifter, leave advice 💬 ⬇️

There’s a lot of growth that happens when we commit to our own health & fitness as riders. I know for me, a big part of that was getting over my apprehension around going to the gym.

The feelings of judgment, self consciousness, feeling like you don’t quite know what you’re doing, where you’re going, and that everyone somehow knows more than you.

Logically we know that’s not the case, & everyone is pretty much so self-absorbed in their own little world that they’re not really paying attention to much beyond their own workout. But even though we logically know that, it’s still a very challenging hurdle.

I remember in my first couple years of university being absolutely terrified of leaving the cardio room. I was far too nervous of someone calling me out for not knowing what I was doing, or using a machine wrong, that I would barely venture past the stretching mats.

And even when I went to physio school, we weren’t taught this stuff. We weren’t really taught anything beyond basic theraband exercises, and it wasn’t until I started working with a personal trainer that I really started to build any confidence in a gym setting.

I think for most of us, while logically we want to just push past the nervousness, it can be hard. So if I can offer some advice, relying on a few strategic principles can be really useful for getting over that self-consciousness.

• ASK FOR HELP: Whether it be a staff member, or personal trainer, just spending a few minutes having someone help orient you to the equipment can really boost your confidence.

• HAVE A PLAN: I can’t tell you how many aimless hours I’ve spent wandering around the gym. But having a solid training program or plan to follow, with instructions and demos, can really help you settle in and feel confident in your workout.

• GO WITH A FRIEND: Even if neither of you know what you’re doing, I can make the whole experience a lot more enjoyable to lean on each other.

• START AT HOME: There’s nothing wrong with keeping it simple. Gaining your confidence at home before moving to a gym setting is totally fine!

09/03/2025

How do you apply your lower leg? How much have you really thought about it?

When we are taught to ride, our coaches, usually cue us to “squeeze our legs“ to get the horse to move forward.

While that is fine for a novice, often it is not greatly refined or differently taught as we progress in our skills.

Most of us still rely quite heavily on our hamstrings to pull our lower leg back, our adductors to squeeze our knees in, and our hip flexors to pull our thigh up when trying to apply the lower leg.

While I’m obviously exaggerating in this video, the issue with this type of aid is that it creates a very unstable base, usually throws our body to the side or collapses our lateral trunk (which the horse compensates for), and provides a disjointed pressure through the leg.

To maintain a secure lower leg and provide consistent pressure through the whole limb, you may want to look at driving the aid more from the hip, not at the knee. That means hip muscles should be the main drivers, with the hamstrings and adductors working primarily to provide stability, not movement.

The main movers should be your hip extensors and rotators, mainly your glute max and glute med.

Instead of pulling your lower leg up to drive the back of your calf into the horse, think of keeping the front of your hip long and squeezing your glute to move a stable leg. This will help you keep your torso much more stable, keep your pelvis fairly soft, and provide consistent pressure through your entire lower leg, not just at your knee or the back of your calf.

Do you think you'll give this a try on your next ride? Let me know in the comments!

09/02/2025

Don’t sleep on upper body moves! ⬇️ (just because you don’t see the value...)
You might not notice a huge change in your riding after the first time you press a dumbbell overhead or row a barbell. You might not even notice much the 30th time. That doesn’t mean it’s not working. It means you’re building a system.

A lot of riders who train out of the saddle (if they train at all) tend to focus on what they’ve HEARD they need most. And core work is usually at the top of the list. “Bouncy hands?” More core. “Unsteady lower leg?” Core. “Collapsing through your seat?” Yep... "We need more cowbell ***cough*** core!".

Next up, we'll default to legs, squats, lunges, bridges. And that makes sense too: your legs are your base in the saddle. They help you absorb force, stay with your horse’s motion, and hold your position.

But we tend to skip upper body strength! Especially upper body pushing strength.

Most riders don’t see the link between bench presses or overhead presses and better riding.

And even if we ignore the out-of-saddle needs (carrying buckets, throwing hay bales, pushing open frozen gates, or even tacking up), compound movements (multi-joint exercises) go far beyond just working your arms.

When coordinated well, these lifts teach your WHOLE body how to move with control, from the ground up. You learn how to drive through your legs, brace through your core to translate that power, and express force through your upper body. Sound familiar? It should, because that's the same sequence of muscular effort that helps you half halt with your hands and seat, stay balanced on the backside of a jump, open up for an extended canter, and more.

And while I'm not a fan of the 'piecemeal" style of training just your weak areas, if you ARE focusing on only a few things, compound upper body lifts are a key element.

Do you like this style of breakdown? Follow for more rider-specific insights🧡

09/01/2025

This is it. Week 14.

Maybe you were here every week. Maybe you popped in and out. Either way, you showed up. And that matters.

This week, pick one thing you’re not leaving behind from this summer. It could be mindset, a new habit habit, an adopted tool, or just a general shift.

Lock it in. Carry it forward into fall like the legend you are.

To enter the final giveaway:
→ Comment CARRY + Tell us what you’re taking forward with you to qualify!
→ Final entry link will be DM’d to you ☀️

One rider will win a FREE MONTH of training through TEP, announced Sunday.

LinkDM *003*

The Equestrian Physio

09/13/2025

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